Crossing borders – European laity meet each other around St Dominic

Dominic was the first itinerant preacher of the dominican Order,  characterised by evangelical itinerancy, incarnated in imitating the apostels.

As Br Carlos Aspiroz Costa reminds us: “God was calling Diego and Dominic to start in a foreign land a new evangelisation that would later acquire universal horizons. The journey away from what was known, familiar, easy to accept, opened their hearts. They were never the same again.” Itinerancy involves hospitality, crossing borders, meeting other pilgrims, who are looking for something – or Someone! and the people we meet share with us their pains, frustration, despair, worries, etc. – and also their joys, hopes, aspirations.

As Catherine of Siena says, Dominic’s travelling was based on the movement of the Son from the Father. The Son was sent by the Father to reveal His face. Furthermore, in the Bible movement in faith is very important. God called Abraham to leave the land of his fathers, to be given the Promised Land.

The image of St Dominic is created by Br Felix Hernandez Mariano OP. This “Pilgrim Image” is send to every Province and Vicariate throughout Europe. It is a symbol of hope and unity, to contemplate on the image within all these Provinces and Vicariates (breathe in) and  later on to pass him (breathe out)  to “strangers”  from neighbouring Provinces, who will become known brothers and sisters. The pilgrimage will culminating in its arrival at the European Assembly in May 2014 in Bologna.

Br Timothy Radcliffe says: “For many members of the Dominican family to be sent does not mean to travel. […] Many lay Dominicans are married or have jobs, which mean that they cannot just get up and go. So being sent means more than physical mobility. It means being from God. It is our being. Jesus is “the one who was sent” (Heb 3.1). He is sent from the Father, but that did not mean that Jesus made a physical journey, that he left heaven and came to another place called earth. […] Being sent is who he is, now and for ever!

Sing as brothers and sisters around the “icon” of St Dominic: Dominican Litany.

Calendar of the pilgrimage

Chain of Preachers of Hope: a call and a reflection from Malta
11th September 2017

To be a preacher and not to be a pilgrim, is impossible….
28th June 2014

Assembly prayer
25th May 2014

In front of the image of St. Dominic
5th April 2014

The “icon” of St. Dominic is on pilgrimage throughout Europe
14th March 2014

Information
25th April 2012